Jordan, given the fact that the movie had to be entertaining, how close did the movie The Wolf Of Wall Street come to the reality as presented in your book, and how well the Leo DiCaprio and the cast portrayed the players' lives?

I admire Smith's impulse to expand his film-making palette and was a fan of his Red State. Tusk, however, may only be for Smith completists. It was so disheartening that I bailed a little early in order to make a screening of The Reach.

In a society in which capital has disproportionate power over labor, and in which organized labor is on the decline as a proportion of the labor force, it's incumbent on leaders of organized labor not to make it easy for their enemies to make them the issue.

I continue to wonder what it will take to overcome some of the misguided perceptions that the public has about hedge funds. But getting the word out about their philanthropic generosity through events like these seems a very good place to start.

Entertainment is full of fascination with with some of civilization's most bizarre social arrangements; we justify our enjoyment of them with the thought that they are being presented in some kind of critical manner.

We are now living with an entire generation of disinterested store clerks, rude waiters, indifferent cable company operators and medical office staffs who frankly don't give a damn whether you ever cross their employer's doorway again. Does Best Buy really wonder why it's in bankruptcy? (Hint: Shoppers hate you.)

Institutions such as the International Criminal Court and various treaty bodies are the tide. However, the capacity to recognize the human being in the other is at the source of a new "Golden Rule" that will fashion relationships of compatibility, even synergy over adversity.

The real-time information river is flowing 24/7 (including weekends!) and it's finally time for companies to understand that and get on board. The competitive gap is widening. I'm predicting the next disruption in financial services will be in the stock market research and industry analysis business.

If you think Romney is ready to transcend his questionable business practices, consider that in his only political job, in one term as Massachusetts governor, Romney stood aloof from legislators. Clearly he just suffered through the degrading experience of running a state to build his resume for a White House run.

They might have some abstract legal "right" to vote -- but not the deeply rooted right to vote that only comes from the exercise of responsible proprietorship. And besides, what does not having a photo ID in this day and age testify to if not an absence of that responsibility?

Rather than write about the likes of Tim Pawlenty and his relative strengths over Rob Portman's budget experience... oh, sorry, I seem to have put myself to sleep there. The real choices aren't exciting to write about, so let's travel to the Land of Make-Believe instead, shall we?

Private equity may not have been the prime mover, and at times it spawned uncertainty and job losses (or worse); but it also opened opportunities, not just for buyout mavens like Romney, but for owners and managers and, in some cases, workers of middle-market companies.

You don't need a psychoanalyst to detect the latent theme running through the endorsements currently showering Mitt Romney like broken rain gutters pouring down on a concrete toadstool. And that premise is ennui.

It's a rash that erupts only when Willard's name tops the national polls. A serious knee-buckling case of Buyer's Remorse. Of course the clueless plastic smile of an aged Ken doll hasn't acted as a sufficient antidote either.

With movie critics split on the film, here's a look at what Wall Street's real bankers -- and those who cover them -- had to say about the movie, its 1987 original, and the larger-than-life Gordon Gekko.